ponte dell'Ammiraglio

Ponte dell’Ammiraglio is a stone bridge of striking asymmetry and quiet purpose. Its entire structure is cut from calcarenite ashlar, assembled into two opposing ramps that rise in a humpback profile. Restoration has added local stone, tufo dell’Aspra and pietra dell’Isola delle Femmine, but the original logic remains: a double sequence of pointed arches with double rings, descending symmetrically from the centre. Seven arches with recessed rings give way to five smaller, flatter ones, flush with the masonry.

At the southern entrance, a pair of truncated conical columns marks the threshold; a single such column repeats the gesture at the north-east corner. The northern approach is a ramp set at a right angle across an embankment, with a subsidiary stair running parallel. The southern ramp’s central lane is flanked by two small stepped side-ramps. The vaults are built in horizontal courses parallel to their axes, the arch rings shaped from radial voussoirs. A bridge, then, that is less a simple crossing than a careful negotiation of water and land, built to endure.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.